Giulio Squillaciotti “Visto due Volte” at Barriera, Turin

Visto due volte is currently on display at Barriera,Turin. It is the solo exhibition of artist Giulio Squillacciotti who was invited by Arteco (Annalisa Pellino and Beatrice Zanelli) to a residence that is an integral part of the study and research work carried out in irregular-art histories – historically defined as art brut and most recently outsider art – of the Mai Visti project.

The artist was invited to conduct a reflection on the archival work of Arteco’s artworks attempting to break down still unknown terrain of historical-artistic research, starting from its primary sources and revealing the narrative potential that assumes unexpected and not necessarily linear declensions.

During his residence, Squillacciotti focused specifically on three archives he had access to – the Museo di Antropologia ed Etnografia of the University of Turin, that of works made in the former Ospedale Psichiatrico di Collegno and the Archivio Mai Visti of the City of Turin – understood as envelopes of an allness that contains and absorbs the same human presence in an indistinct set of micro-stories and symbolic values, extracted then recombined in a completely arbitrary and fictional way in video works and the scenic elements on display.

The project Mai Visti conceives residency as a “dialogic held between themes, practices, places and audience.” In this light, Squillacciotti was asked to work on the task of preserving and promoting outsider art that Piedmont is facing today. The artist as an ethnographer seems to have opted for his own way of telling this story by blurring any reference to a specific time and space. At a closer look, however, symptoms and essential clues emerge.

In a school trip to the Cloister of Collegno, an Insane Asylum up to the 13th of May, 1978, a class of teenagers visit the spaces as if they had been turned into a museum. Through the auxiliary help of an audio guide of apparently non-sense indications, the students shape a museum path which only exists around their steps.

Three Turin archives – far from one another in space and time, but sharing a common story – are portrayed in three symmetrical circumstances.
The archives from the former Collegno Insane Asylum (today managed by the Public Health Service of Turin), the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography from the University of Turin and finally the “Mai Visti” Archive of the City of Turin (Atelier La Galleria) disclose themselves thanks to their custodians that, by wandering through the rooms and the documents in a sort of a daily choreography, move the archives symbolically out of their usual holding spaces.

The project Mai Visti e Altre Storie is aimed at promoting collections (works, practices and knowledge) and authors from Turin and Piedmont of Arte Irregolare (historically defined as art brut and more recently outsider art). They constitute an artistic and cultural heritage that is significant, unique, unusual and at risk of being dispersed. This is an occasion to reflect on the porous boundaries between outsiders and contemporary art practices. So far, this project realised the publication of an online archive that can be partially accessed at maivisti.it and some exhibitions and talks, workshops and other learning activities for different types of public. Also, partnerships with local institutions and associations were established, and namely in the field of graphic design and independent publishing.